Steven's letter Feb 22

Dear family
Hey how has your week been going?  Anything exciting going on?  Everything has been pretty normal here.  Its warmed up lately.   I am still trying to learn Spanish.  Elder Contreras is helping me a lot.  He speaks English so we are doing pretty good together.  So far I haven’t been able to do much helping in the lessons. I can’t understand much.  This week  I am going to start trying to add more into the lessons though.  We don’t have a ward or a branch here.  There is just a little group.  We are trying to help it become a branch though.  The stake president came last week and told us that hopefully soon it will be able to become a branch.  The Memphis area has a branch, but most areas here are just little groups.  They haven’t grown enough to become branches.  I had to give a talk in church yesterday.  The group leader called me and asked if I liked challenges.  Then he asked me to give a talk in church.  I think that was probably the hardest talk I have ever given.  It was defiantly the hardest one for me to say yes to.  I don’t think I did that great.  I’m glad its over with now.  I have been worrying about it all week.  I found out that we play soccer and teach English classes every Tuesday night.  Those are a lot of fun.  We invite all of our investigators to it, and a lot of other people that we meet.  A lot of the branch comes to it too.  It’s a great activity.  I never thought I would be playing soccer here on the mission.  It’s a lot of fun.  It’s a good way to fellowship the investigators and to find new people to teach.  The members in the group  sometimes bring friends and introduce them to us.  Its great.  O  This week we got fed pig feet again.  We got invited over for dinner on Thursday and the family had taken pig feet,  dipped them in eggs and fried them.(like you would to French toast)  Then they boiled them in tomato juice.  That one was hard to eat.  I never thought I would be eating anything like that on the mission either.  Elder Contreras wouldn’t eat it though.  I guess he doesn’t like any kind of pork.  So he just wouldn’t eat anything.  I don’t think the family was to happy with him.  They just said  “the American will eat it but you wont?”  Well every thing else is going great.  I’ll be doing a lot of Spanish study this week.  Hopefully I’ll be able to start doing better with that.  Well I hope you have a great week. 
Love Elder Marshall   
O and I haven’t been able to go to the temple at all in Memphis.  I haven’t been able to go since I was in provo.  About  8 months now.  I won’t be able to unless I get moved back over into Memphis.
Quote of the week:
"We are commanded to 'pray always' (2 Nephi 32:9; D&C 10:5; 90:24)—'vocally as well as in [our] heart[s]; . . . before the world as well as in secret, in public as well as in private' (D&C 19:28). I testify that prayer becomes more meaningful as we counsel with the Lord in all of our doings, as we express heartfelt gratitude, and as we pray for others with real intent and a sincere heart. I witness Heavenly Father lives and that He hears and answers every earnest prayer."            - David A. Bednar